


Ghosts and Graham Crackers

by ComicBooksBro



Series: The Happy One (3490 Secret Empire) [2]
Category: Marvel 3490, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, F/M, Not Beta Read, Sad, Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-24 18:23:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21103946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ComicBooksBro/pseuds/ComicBooksBro
Summary: Steve Rogers and Natasha Stark's daughter reflects on the state of things.





	Ghosts and Graham Crackers

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry if this sucks. I got an idea and just needed to run with it.

5-years-and-9-months-old Maria Rogers ran quietly down the hall, a box of graham crackers clutched tightly to her chest. She rounded the corner, crossed through the vacant dining room and headed towards the stair case that would take her to her brother. The brother in question was4-years-and-7-months-old James Rogers, who was currently hiding in his room and refused to come out. It has been that was for a few weeks now. 

Maria grabbed the handrail and started her ascent, careful not to look at the pictures on the wall. Sometimes, when things are bad, people say looking at pictures of back when everything was happy will make you feel better. If you asked Maria, it just made her feel cotton and lonely (but nobody asked her anything anymore). Of course She still had James, and sometimes Mom even came back (It was nice to see her, even if she was all translucent and blue, but Maria wished she could give her Mom a hug every once and a while. At least ghost-Mom was better than no Mom.) She wanted her /real/ Mom back, Maria would never say that to ghost-Mom though, she was sad enough already. 

Maria wanted her Dad back. If it was any comfort, (and it wasn't,) this one was flesh and blood rather than gears and wires. But that meant that he was almost certainly real. She wasn't sure she wanted him to be real. She hadn't understood exactly what was going on when the Avengers (minus Mom, of course, and Dad.) Had broken into Avengers Tower and taken them to The Mansion. Later, Uncle Bucky explained it to her as best he could.

'Something's a little off with Steve right now, and it's not safe for you two to be around him. We're leaving you here. We'll come by every few days of we can and get you guys some food. Don't worry, everything's gonna be fine.'

Maria had told Bucky she didn't want him to leave, and he assured Maria that he didn't want to leave her either, but it was safer for them to stay away. Bucky said Steve might come for him and he didn't want her to be in danger if that happened. Maria wondered why her dad wasn't looking for her. She knew he was dangerous, but it still hurt. Why didn't he want her?

Had she done something wrong?

Maria found out the whole truth later, and almost wished she didn't. She made a promise to herself that day to never tell James. He didn't need to know. A few weeks later was when ghost-Mom first appeared. James had been scared out of his wits, and had ran from the main living room, all the way to his room and locked the door. James hadn't come out since. He would only open the door for Maria, and even then she could only get him to do that half the time.

Maria had reached the end of the staircase now and was walking down the hallway to James' room. The carpet was soft, and she focused on its swirling red and blue pattern instead of the walls. A floorboard creeked under her foot. 

She knocked on the door. "James? It's me. I brought food." She knew any other coaxing would be useless. James only let her in when he needed food, which wasn't all that often. One time he had frozen her out for almost five days. She almost had to break the door down on the last day. A lock clicked on the other side of the door, and it swung open. Maria walked in, checking the hallway behind her as she did. A picture hung in her vision, one of all four of them, before. Mom and Dad (the /real/ ones) in their costumes after a battle. They had their arms around each others waists and were just about to land. I'm the foreground her and James were running to tham, you could only see the back of their heads, but it was easy to tell it was them. Maria's blond hair flew in a tail behind her as she ran and James ' dark hair caught the sun. It was.A perfect picture. It made Maria want to cry. 

She took a deep breath. She needed to be happy for James, maybe he would leave his room today. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Drop a comment if you liked it!


End file.
